It's time to be honest. I am not a great intercessor when it comes to prayer. An intercessor is someone that is good at lifting up the concerns of others to God's throne of grace and asking God's mercy, love, grace, healing, guiding Spirit, etc. etc. to flow into another person's life. Sure, I say prayers for people, but ongoing prayer for a person or situation is hard for me. I have to continually remind myself to pray for this or that person or situation. A natural intercessor, or as they are sometimes called, a Prayer Warrior, is much better at this than I am.

   My prayer life is best illustrated by this example from the book entitled Prayer written by Ole Hallesby. In the book he relates the following interaction between him and his son:

  "My little boy came in one day and stuck his little head into the doorway of my study. Now he knew that he was not supposed to disturb me during working hours. And his conscience troubled him a little on account of this. But he looked at me nevertheless with his kind, round baby eyes and said, "Papa, dear, I will sit still all the time if you will only let me be here with you!"

  That he received permission when he approached my father-heart in that way, every father knows.


  That little experience gave me a great deal to think about.


   Is not that just the way we often feel with regard to our heavenly Father? We do so love to be with him, just to be in his presence! Moreover, we never disturb him, no matter when we come nor how often we come!


   We pray to God. We speak to him about everything we have on our minds both concerning others and ourselves. There come times, not so seldom with me at least, when I have nothing more to tell God. ...(We)...have nothing more to say to thee, but I do love to be in they presence."

   That sort of describes my relationship with God. Most of the time I have very little to say. I offer up my list of things that I need to pray about and then I simply just want to sit there and be in God's presence.

   What about you. What is your prayer relationship with God like? More talkative and active or more quiet and contemplative? Share you thoughts with a comment below.

  In part one, I talked about the Great Commision and our call to "make disciples" rather than make converts. In this post, I want to get more specific in trying to define the word disciple. Once again I am borrowing freely from the work of Jim Putman quoted in the previous blog.

  The foundation scripture that defines a disciple can be found in Matthew 4:19:

         "And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (KJ 2000 Bible)

  This passage can be divided into three sections and seen together, gives us a picture of what it means to be a disciple. Let's examine each section.

   Jesus begins with the words "Follow me." On their face, these words are quite clear.  If you want to be a disciple of Jesus you must follow him. You can't follow a church or a preacher. You can't follow some idea in your head that you dreamed up or read about to be a disciple. If you want to be a disciple, then you have to follow Jesus. To follow means first of all becoming a convert. You have to put your whole trust and faith in Jesus to save you and put you back into a right relationship with God. Then you need to give your life to him and seek, day by day, to take up your own cross, and follow after him. This means a death to self and a rebirth to new life in Christ. 

   The next step in discipleship is the step of transformation. Once we decide to wholeheartedly follow Jesus, he begins to transform our lives. The words "...and I will make..." indicate that Jesus is going to take us and mold us or shape us into something different than we were prior to knowing him and deciding to follow him. He will transform us from our old way of living and looking at the world and into this new creature that he died to create. He will begin to shape our desires. He will give us new reason for living. He will call us into ministry and mission on behalf of God's kingdom. We will no longer be like we once were, but will, day by day, become more and more like him.

   The final step in the discipleship process is found in the words "...fishers of men."  We give our life to him. He takes us and remakes us into a new creature and he then plants within us the focus of what this new creature is to do. We are to fish for men. We are to be proclaimers of God's Word and Kingdom and we are to begin the process of telling others about Jesus Christ so that they can be converted, transformed, and set free to tell others.

   In other words, disciples are people that make more disciples. If you are not making disciples, then I think you must seriously question if you are a disciple or simply a convert. It's great to be a convert and experience the salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ. However, unless you are in the process of making new disciples, then you cannot call yourself a disciple.

  What do you think about this? Are you a convert or a disciple of Jesus Christ? Share with me you thoughts in the comment section.

  As you might note, I haven't posted for over two months to the blog portion of the web site. I have been working on other areas of the site instead. The most effort has been given to the MEDIA section and the addition of Sunday Connections.

   Through the years, I have tended to pull everything into little separate compartments on a web site: sermons, publications, music etc. That way you could go to a specific place to find what you are looking for. Well, it dawned on me that there was another way to do it. I have called it Sunday Connections. Here's how it works.

   I have been creating a page for each Sunday. On that page I then include all the things relevant to that particular Sunday of worship. You will find: 

• the sermon, downloadable pdf's of the Pastor's Ponderings, the Order of Worship, and The Trinity Tribune.
•  In addition, you will find a section for audio files that give you a brief rundown of the month's activities, 
• You will also find a copy of the Sermon Guide a companion to the Sunday sermon that will help you better follow along or provide you key reference points when things are done. 
• I am also breaking out other parts of the worship service: Children's message, choral music, solos, etc. and giving video links to just that portion.
• I will also try to create some Teachable Moments from each of the sermons. These will be excerpts of the sermon that can stand on their own and teach some small truth.
  
• Every now and then I will include a link to  special video or web page that I think you might want to view.

  I know that on paper it sounds like a lot. It is. However, it is the place you need to start going to in order to know what is going on at church. If you miss a Sunday it only means you were not physically present, because now there is no need to not know what happened when you were away.

Click on this link to be taken to the SUNDAY CONNECTION section of the web site.